


Life's Enchanted Cut But Sparkles Near The Brim

by ruric



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-03
Updated: 2006-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-13 15:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruric/pseuds/ruric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance meeting, or is it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life's Enchanted Cut But Sparkles Near The Brim

The smile curves his lips upwards and a radiating arc of tiny lines is creased into his skin, rippling out from the corner of his mouth towards the barest hint of a dimple that marks his left cheek.

So easy to see a warm welcome and humour there, but you know better.

As you reach out to take his hand your gaze moves up, from the lips which slowly part to reveal the merest hint of white teeth, the pink tip of his tongue sliding to rest behind his upper lip.

You note the fluttering twitch of a muscle below his cheekbone, so brief that if this wasn’t you, wasn’t him, you’d doubt the evidence of your own eyes and convince yourself you hadn’t seen it. 

But you have. Because this is you, and this is him.

Your eyes meet just a fraction of a second before you touch. Wide green eyes bathed in innocence, until skin meets skin, and you see emerald fire flare in their depths as his fingertips slide over your palm, his thumb brushing the back of your hand.

But you know the look, you recognize it too well. 

You’ve seen it often enough in your own eyes, standing in the bathroom, staring into a mirror for hour upon hour as you tried to bleed the experiences gained, through actions you’ve committed and things you’ve witnessed, from your face. Easy enough to relax muscles, to see frown lines slide away, making you appear younger, but the eyes give you away. Innocence lost cannot be regained, knowledge once learned cannot be forgotten.

You feel the heat from his gaze as your skin burns, from wrist to elbow to shoulder, turning your blood to Greek fire, drying your mouth and throat, searing into your lungs, to curl down and settle in your belly.

His grip tightens, pulling you in, and you have to take a step forward, a step closer to him so as not to lose your balance. 

“I never thought I’d see you again.”

His breath whispers across your cheek, is warm against your ear, and it takes all that you are, all that you have learned over so very many years not to shiver.

Rocking back, a little space gained between you and his smile widens, full of wickedness, and the promise in his eyes sends sparks skittering up your spine to detonate at the base of your skull.

His fingers caress the soft skin of your wrist, pressing against the pulse beating there and his eyes go feral when he feels the beat increase. 

You feel heat bleed into your own eyes and know that you’re looking at him the same way. 

“Never underestimate the mysteries of the universe Byron.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the following quote (by Byron of course!):
> 
> Years steal Fire from the mind, as vigor from the limb;   
> And life's enchanted cut but sparkles near the brim. 
> 
> Source: Childe Harold (canto III, st. 8)


End file.
